Episode XXXIX – A.C.

The Hive has nothing much to say about Pike. It provides his birth records, his private employment records (he’s an analyst of some kind at Haight Western) and his “Profile” — his ratings by various people he’s interacted with electronically and physically in the Mark. He’s an ordinary guy, absurdly rich by Undercity standards, upper middle class otherwise. According to his Profile and employment reviews, he’s average at his job and not in any danger either of  losing it or being promoted. He has no criminal record, though he likes to gamble. People see him as a perennial striver — always on the make but not really good enough to make it. As such his trust ratings are fine for commercial transactions, but not stellar. In short, he’s an average, if slightly shady, banker.

The Hive also has nothing much (useful) to say about August. It provides his various arrest records and the private law-enforcement files on him. He’s a thug. It also provides the same rumors A.C. has already heard. It doesn’t have anything more on him. It’s not a clearance level issue, there just aren’t any good sources. The Hive notes that it could attempt to secure information from certain restricted sources that it has not yet prioritized, but that to do so it would require something in return. A.C.’s sense is that The Hive is talking about hacking the Inns, and that doing so would be costly.

LB: The thing about the Thing, is that it’s not something you guys made. Well, it is. I mean, someone made it — carved it into that shape. But that’s not what matters. It’s the stuff. LB pauses. A.C.’s connection to him flickers for a moment, as if he were away for just a second. Then he’s back.

Here’s the thing. We were here first. We were here long before you. A really, really long time before you. When you came here, you didn’t settle down next to us, you wiped the world clean first. You can’t understand what it means. No one can. Close as we are, Doc, it’s not even real for me and it can’t be real for you. It was a million times worse than the worst thing ever. I don’t even understand it. I don’t understand what was left behind when nothing was left behind — but that’s that. Anyway some of what you did was just make these big, hot fires. And some of what came out of those fires was, like, melted dirt or sand or rock or something. And some of that rock cooled down into this black glass with . . . stuff in it. And the head is a chunk of that. And what it has in it has power. Old, old power. It’s some of the last stuff left from before you wiped us off the face of our own planet. It doesn’t do anything in your world — or maybe it does. It’s hard to tell because it’s so active in mine. People with a close connection to my world are going to be drawn to it because of what’s inside it. Whether they know it or not. What they do with that power depends on who they are and how they work.

Episode XXXIX – Kaz

Kaz sends his messages to A.C., Gummo and The Hive. The Hive acknowledges and will watch. He cleans up his place and bugs out.

Episode XXXIX – Gummo

Gummo goes to sleep in his cabin as night falls.

Some time later he awakens, back under the old Axia A-Point Condenser Supports, digging around in the discarded trash for salvage to take up to Lying Pete’s. It’s a crappy way to spend the hot, rainy afternoon but it beats the Undercity community center and at least he has a few friends to play hooky with. Pickings are thin today and Kyle keeps beating him to the decent stuff, so after a while Gummo decides to kick off and go check out that strange door in the K-V-13 strut. It’s always been there, of course — some kind of maintenance hatch — but today it’s tantalizingly ajar.

Gummo crosses the trash field under the condenser and yanks open the small hatch. Oddly, there is cool air coming from inside. It’s refreshing and inviting, and Gummo quickly slips into the hatch with little more than a glance behind him.

Beyond the hatch is not a tight, constricted maintenance ladder or access shaft, but rather a small, neat office. It is night time (suddenly), and the large back window of the office, which must be high in a tower somehow, reveals a sky full of stars. Hanging in the sky among the stars is a single, large, blue-green moon. None of this seems especially strange to Gummo. It is what it is.

At the back of the office, near the window, is a desk and at the desk sits a man. He’s not very remarkable. Middle-aged, in shirt-sleeves with his tie hanging loose, a worn suit jacket over the back of his chair. Fancy for the Undercity, sure, but this isn’t the Undercity anymore, Gummo figures, and this guy doesn’t look like much. His skin is pale, like that girl’s — what’s her name? — but he’s not tall like her. He’s just average. His desk is tidy; his terminal and datapads are dark. He gestures for Gummo to sit in on of the two chairs facing his desk.

Hello Gummo. I’m Jack. You going to work for me?

Episode XXXVIII – Gummo

Gummo leaves the diner and walks out into the street.

Episode XXXVIII – Kaz

Kaz leaves the diner and walks out into the street.

Episode XXXVIII – A.C.

A.C. leaves the diner and walks out into the street.

Episode XXXVII

The Mark - Downtown

You gather in the lobby the next morning and hail a cab to the address in the message. As expected, it is in the business district which consists largely of glass and steel office towers and looks a lot like the Overcity, only with a bluer sky and a brighter sun. The streets are full of people going about their business and no one really looks at you.

((Please let me know what you are carrying in terms of weapons, if anything. In general people do not seem to carry weapons openly in the Mark – at least not in any of the neighborhoods you have visited so far.))

You enter on of the buildings, check in at a security desk (where your IDs seem to do fine) and, after a quick call upstairs, you are directed to take an elevator to a high floor. Once there, you encounter a reception area much like the one outside the office where you first met Oz, only more modern — done in glass and light wood rather than the older, dark wood style you saw in Axia. Once again, an enormous window looks out over the city and the harbor, affording a spectacular view. The name of the firm, L & L Sands is on the wall over the large reception desk. Two attractive receptionists, one male and one female, man the desk looking pleasant, if a little bored. A spiral staircase ascends toward the floors above and there is the very faint sound of phones ringing somewhere. This is a large, busy and well-staffed operation, whatever it does.

The receptionist (female) indicates that you should sit and that someone will be with you momentarily to take you in. If anyone is wearing any outerwear ((you wouldn’t have to, it’s warm and sunny out)) she mentions that there is a coat closet. Other than that she simply smiles and gets back to her work.


Episode XXXVI

The Plane!

Once you are done with your financial transactions, Mo flags down a van and you all head out of the town and back into the scrub desert as the sun comes up. A short trip outside of town along a decent road you come to a small airstrip. At one end of the strip is a group of metal buildings and a tall concrete tower topped with some kind of control facility. These are some of the more permanent structures you have seen associated with the Waypoint. There are any number of small aircraft and vehicles parked on and around the makeshift airport, but the small strip is dominated (by far) by an enormous cargo aircraft that looks war-torn and well used, but airworthy.

The cargo aircraft appears to be loaded and ready to take off, it’s various tending and loading vehicles having pulled away to give it room. As you pull up to the airstrip, Mo jumps out, hands some pieces of paper to the driver (which must be Scrip) and takes off across the tarmac toward one of the buildings, leaving you standing around with your gear. He shouts back at you as he runs. Wait there! Be right back!

Episode XXXV

Gather Round

Mo translates, and the Leader nods and thinks it over. He says something back to Mo and they have a brief conversation.  Finally the leader shakes his head and rides off into the darkness. Mo explains.

He said the Elder doesn’t travel. I told him we’re here because the Elder couldn’t keep his promises, and he’d damn well better travel — or something like that. He said he’d go check. So I guess that’s what he’s gone to do.

Some time later the Leader reappears, this time with two more riders. He explains, through Mo, that the Elder will meet you at Mo’s camp. You all mount up and ride. Once again, the ride is short, but strangely dizzying and confusing. The terrain seems to shift in odd ways in the darkness — perhaps a trick of the fading moons-light. After a short ride, you arrive back at Mo’s camp. Once again, Mo seems to have dozed and has to be awakened. The fire is still lit, and beside it, on a bedroll, wrapped in a heavy robe against the cold desert night, sits the tiny figure of the Elder.

Episode XXXIV

It's Full of Stars

Gummo goes down and settles himself into the bar to watch the village square through the open door. Kaz and A.C. take their stuff and head out into the night.

The night is dark, and as Kaz said, the sky seems absurdly full of stars. Neither Kaz nor A.C. has ever been “outside” in night like this before. Chella, the old moon, is high and pale and Ouro, the new moon, is a small bright coin on the horizon. Kaz glances up to confirm the dark spot in the sky that indicates the presence of something — who knows what, exactly — hovering above, blocking the stars.

Light spills from the doors of the inn and the “church” and a few windows. With that and the star and moonligt, Kaz can see fine and A.C. has no real trouble once his eyes adjust. The trader is dressed in darker clothing than the last time you saw him and wears a coat against the chilly desert night, but he looks largely the ssame. He sitting on the edge of the well, looking around as if expecting an ambush. The only noticable addition to his wardrobe is a sword strapped across his back, the hilt visible over his left shoulder.

When he sees Kaz and A.C. he stands up, looks around again, and nods to them to come over.